Misbilled water account

xmasvik25

we have been incorrectly billed for the past 6 years and the water board are now asking us to pay £1300 to correct this (we have never paid sewerage charges!) Are they entitled to claim the full 6 years as it was their mistake (or previous owners) not ours??

Any advice???

Gothicfairy

In one word..Yes

They are allowed to go back that far and often do. What they will say is that as you are the homeowner/ tenant you are responsible for knowing what you are charged for or not. Same as if you were being charged SWD and were not connected, they would say it was down to you to apply and to prove it.
They do not really know what every house in their area is connected to off hand and it might be that when you were brought into charge one of the services dropped off and it has only just been found out. It might also be that you are in a area where you could be supplied by 2 companies and that got confused.

You can ask for a payment plan or apply to the trust fund but to be honest there is little else you can do.
Which company is it by the way as some are not as difficult as others to deal with.

xmasvik25

thanks - severn trent

Gothicfairy

Did you get a letter from someone to explain ( with a direct phone number )?

Afraid you have very little to go on though as they can do what they have done.

There is a trust fund for STW : http://www.sttf.org.uk/ They might be able to help pay the balance

dogshome

Hi xmasvic25 - The maximum they can go back is 6 years, and as they are billing you for that period the chances are the problem is even older than that.

However, it is known that in these situations Utility companies can sometimes be very lazy when calculating old charges, and take the easy way out by chargeing everything at today's rates.
In 2004 water/sewage costs were lower than they are today and have been subject to annual increases - If you have not got a detailed bill that lists the tariff and cost for each individual year covered by the £900 demand, then write and insist on one
Good Luck